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garbutch's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This was a romance story but I felt more than that, that it was a personal growth story. Sort of depicting the differences between someone and the decisions they make as young people and then when they are 28 and grown up a bit, and the things it takes to get there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Cursing
Moderate: Chronic illness
Minor: Mental illness and Pregnancy
onegalonelife27's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Ableism
Minor: Pregnancy, Hate crime, and Panic attacks/disorders
spinesinaline's review
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for an ARC of this one. I was very intrigued in both a Toronto setting and a loose retelling of Persuasion, but it felt like it really missed the mark on the second. It is a compelling story: the main character is struggling in her career after a devastating theft by her business partner, and now has to face her ever-successful ex-beau.
The part that really brought this down for me was the love interest. Persuasion is in part a story of young lovers separated by family and finding each other again as adults, with all the maturity that this passage of time has brought them. This book has some of that except the love interest has none of the maturity. The main character has a lot of valid reasons and feelings that her young self expresses and I wish we could’ve seen other characters validate this as well, especially around her concerns of sexist treatment. Instead, she’s made to feel wrong and somehow the villain in this relationship, with no responsibility placed on her ex/love interest. This book got so close to some real revelations but ultimately felt short in making this man some beloved fictional placeholder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Islamophobia, and Sexism
Moderate: Ableism and Mental illness
ukponge's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Pregnancy
ballgownsandbooks's review
I have a somewhat mixed track record with Uzma Jalaluddin, and I wasn’t originally planning to request this for review – but the publisher reached out to me, and once they’d offered, I wasn’t going to say no! But having proceeded to devour the book within 24 hours, and then sit on my feelings for over a fortnight, I’m still pretty conflicted about this book.
The retelling
The first thing to say is that it’s barely a Persuasion retelling. In typical Uzma Jalaluddin fashion, it’s an extremely loose reimagining – I can see where she’s taken inspiration from Austen, but if I wasn’t looking for the connections, I probably wouldn’t have realised it was a retelling at all. Beyond being a second chance romance, the plot beats aren’t the same at all, and Nada is certainly nothing like Anne Elliot!
The heroine
I do appreciate Jalaluddin’s ability to write complex heroines, but my main feeling about Nada was just that she was messy, which is a main character type that I personally tend not to do so well with. While I did relate to some of her feelings, particularly around trying to navigate her two cultures, I mostly found her pretty unlikeable and annoying. She makes some pretty huge mistakes, both in the past and present timelines, and she just felt very immature and self-absorbed!
The romance
I also wasn’t entirely sold on the romance. While I enjoyed some of Baz and Nada’s banter, especially in the flashbacks to their original relationship, there wasn’t really much depth to their relationship beyond that. In the original Persuasion, we’re led to believe that Anne and Wentworth could have been happy if they had got married when they first wanted to. But Baz and Nada were completely wrong for each other at 21 – without spoiling anything, I was truly floored by some of the stupid decisions they made, and I absolutely cannot believe that they would have had a successful relationship if they’d stayed together at that point! And they never really discuss their relationship deeply in the present timeline either, so even though they’re both (supposedly) wiser and more mature, that doesn’t feel like enough to fix all their issues.
(That said, the overall discussion around getting married young – particularly in the context of South Asian Muslims – hit me hard and made me feel a LOT of things, so I have to give credit to the writing, even if I didn’t love the characters!)
The representation
In terms of the wider story, I always appreciate the way Uzma Jalaluddin manages to capture such a wide spectrum of ways of being Muslim (right down to her willingness to embrace the more uncommon Muslim names – among others, this book had a Bazlur Rahman, Owais, Narjis, Waqas, Firdous...) There was also zero Islamophobia or racism in this book (although a lot of Nada’s struggles have to do with navigating her South Asian-Canadian identity, it’s internal conflict rather than bigotry), which made a nice change!
However, your mileage may vary on whether you consider it halal. I would echo the reviews that say you need to stick with it at the moment where it seems to be not halal in a major way, because that does get cleared up (again, trying to avoid spoilers!) – but still, the milder moments may also stretch the boundaries of what different people consider appropriate.
So overall… I didn’t love this? But I do think a lot of that was down to personal taste, and if you like books about messy, twenty-something women who are allowed to make mistakes, it’s definitely engaging and propulsive!
(Also, this is totally irrelevant to my feelings on the book itself, but I cannot get over how misleading this title is! Every time I think about this book I'm bemused all over again that it's not a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing!)
Thank you to Atlantic Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The retelling
The first thing to say is that it’s barely a Persuasion retelling. In typical Uzma Jalaluddin fashion, it’s an extremely loose reimagining – I can see where she’s taken inspiration from Austen, but if I wasn’t looking for the connections, I probably wouldn’t have realised it was a retelling at all. Beyond being a second chance romance, the plot beats aren’t the same at all, and Nada is certainly nothing like Anne Elliot!
The heroine
I do appreciate Jalaluddin’s ability to write complex heroines, but my main feeling about Nada was just that she was messy, which is a main character type that I personally tend not to do so well with. While I did relate to some of her feelings, particularly around trying to navigate her two cultures, I mostly found her pretty unlikeable and annoying. She makes some pretty huge mistakes, both in the past and present timelines, and she just felt very immature and self-absorbed!
The romance
I also wasn’t entirely sold on the romance. While I enjoyed some of Baz and Nada’s banter, especially in the flashbacks to their original relationship, there wasn’t really much depth to their relationship beyond that. In the original Persuasion, we’re led to believe that Anne and Wentworth could have been happy if they had got married when they first wanted to. But Baz and Nada were completely wrong for each other at 21 – without spoiling anything, I was truly floored by some of the stupid decisions they made, and I absolutely cannot believe that they would have had a successful relationship if they’d stayed together at that point! And they never really discuss their relationship deeply in the present timeline either, so even though they’re both (supposedly) wiser and more mature, that doesn’t feel like enough to fix all their issues.
(That said, the overall discussion around getting married young – particularly in the context of South Asian Muslims – hit me hard and made me feel a LOT of things, so I have to give credit to the writing, even if I didn’t love the characters!)
The representation
In terms of the wider story, I always appreciate the way Uzma Jalaluddin manages to capture such a wide spectrum of ways of being Muslim (right down to her willingness to embrace the more uncommon Muslim names – among others, this book had a Bazlur Rahman, Owais, Narjis, Waqas, Firdous...) There was also zero Islamophobia or racism in this book (although a lot of Nada’s struggles have to do with navigating her South Asian-Canadian identity, it’s internal conflict rather than bigotry), which made a nice change!
However, your mileage may vary on whether you consider it halal. I would echo the reviews that say you need to stick with it at the moment where it seems to be not halal in a major way, because that does get cleared up (again, trying to avoid spoilers!) – but still, the milder moments may also stretch the boundaries of what different people consider appropriate.
So overall… I didn’t love this? But I do think a lot of that was down to personal taste, and if you like books about messy, twenty-something women who are allowed to make mistakes, it’s definitely engaging and propulsive!
(Also, this is totally irrelevant to my feelings on the book itself, but I cannot get over how misleading this title is! Every time I think about this book I'm bemused all over again that it's not a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing!)
Thank you to Atlantic Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Mental illness and Ableism
Depression, divorce
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